


Claiming Stars

by SweetBit



Category: Hikaru no Go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:15:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1189896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetBit/pseuds/SweetBit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite the never-ending feud with her mother, Abi's life is going smoothly as she works to finish the final year of her MFA.  She's confident nothing can go wrong until she discovers a strangely dressed man sitting on the floor of her bedroom. What she first thought was an intruder and then a hallucination turns out to be a go-playing ghost who will change her life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Claiming Stars

**Author's Note:**

> First, I claim no ownership of the Hikaru no Go universe and characters except that which I have created here myself. It all belongs to lovelier people than I!
> 
> Second, Since this is a work in progress all chapters are susceptible to editing and plot changes!
> 
> Thirdly, Please excuse any errors when it comes to Go or Japanese, as neither are my area of expertise and I wanted to focus more on the story than on the details.
> 
> Thank you for reading.

Prologue~

Downtown Lawrence was not much of a happening place, even the weekend before university started, but it was quieter than usual on this Tuesday night. The couple walked down to the end of the block, past all the store front entrances and window displays to a plain door on the last building. It was an old five story brick department store that was converted to apartments decades earlier. Amusing enough it was also the tallest building in Lawrence. The steel door shut behind them with a heavy thud. 

Chapter 1

Everything was pitch black and Sai fought down the urge to panic. After he’d disappeared from Hikaru’s life, Sai had wandered the eternal autumn fields like he had in the centuries before, with no sense of time. He had fulfilled his destiny with Hikaru so he was left wondering why he hadn’t been able to pass on from the precipice world of his goban. Now he had no idea where he was. With Torajirou and Hikaru he could hear their voices and then see them and the world they lived in as his own world faded away. The lack of anything here terrified him and the rising suspicion that he’d done something wrong and had been sent to hell was threatening to override his rational thought. 

He forced himself to take a slow deep breath and waited for the pounding of his heart to retreat from his ears. Once his pulse was back to normal he tried to take in his surroundings again and realized he was not completely alone. He could hear faint voices and as he strained himself they began to get louder. Sai’s panic returned in an instant when he realized the voices seemed to be crying and moaning. He was in hell. He was hearing the voices of tortured souls and he’d be next! Giving no thought to the completely black space he was in, Sai fled into the dark. He only managed a few steps before his surroundings snapped into view and he found himself in a dim lit bedroom. The now much louder voices were cut off by a shrill scream.

Startled by the noise, Sai screamed himself, which caused the first person to scream again. He shuffled away and turned around to see what the ruckus was about. To his utter mortification he discovered that here was no torture going on at all, but rather a man and woman interlocked in a passionate embrace. Sai’s face turned the shade of maple leaves in autumn and he screamed again. He buried his head in his large sleeves and sunk to the ground in a heap of embarrassment. 

“What the hell is wrong!” the man shouted to the woman.

“Who the hell are you!” the woman shouted at Sai.

“Who the hell is who?” the man asked.

“HIM!” she screeched. “Can’t you see him. That guy sitting on my fucking BEDROOM FLOOR!”

The woman reached over to the bedside, pulled a baseball bat from against the wall, and climbed out of bed unabashedly naked. 

“Abi what the fuck are you talking about. There is no one here but us,” observed the man.

The Abi woman looked at Sai, then at the man, then back at Sai, then back at the man.

“Can’t you see him, he’s right there!” she pointed. 

“Shit, are you hallucinating or something? Did your drink get spiked at the bar?” said the man, concern beginning to tinge his tone.

“I didn’t drink anything tonight..so no, you ass, I’m not on drugs. I’m not hallucinating either! There is a weirdly dressed guy sitting on my fucking bedroom floor!” she said, exasperated. Why the hell couldn’t he see him?

“Maybe you should sit down…” said the man. 

Abi looked back at Sai, whose head was still buried in his sleeves and hadn’t moved at all. 

“I’m gonna call it a night okay? I don’t do crazy…” said the guy as he reached around on the floor for his clothing. Abi stood still and silent, with her baseball bat held out. Once the man dressed he stood there in awkward silence for a minute looking at Abi, who was looking at Sai just waiting for him to move. Finally he shrugged and headed for the door.

“Just…I dunno…drink a glass of water and get some sleep, Abi. Maybe go to the doctor tomorrow or something, who knows…” he shrugged, and left. Abi was about to snark a retort at him when he walked completely through the oddly dressed man on the floor on his way out of the apartment. She stood their dumbfounded.

“Shit,” she thought. “I fucking am hallucinating. What the fuck…”

She heard the door shut with a click as Jack let himself out and she let the baseball bat fall from her hand. It hit the hardwood floor with a clammer. The sound caused Sai to jerk his head up, which startled Abi, who squeaked with surprise. Their eyes met for a moment and Sai realized this Abi woman was still completely naked. He cried out again, buried his face once more in his sleeves and turned around to face the other way. It finally dawned on Abi that whoever this hallucination of hers was, he was uncomfortable with her undressed state. She scrambled around her room, putting on some underthings, a tank top, and a pair of gym shorts. It was a bit weird though, that her hallucination was embarrassed by her own naked body. 

“So uhh…you can turn around now. I’m not naked anymore,” she encouraged, but Sai gave no indication of hearing her. 

“Umm…look I’m not really sure how this works. I’ve never hallucinated anything before, ya know? Can you even hear me? Hey!” she called out but the man still didn’t move. Abi gave out an exasperated sigh, walked over to the other side of the guy, and plopped down on the floor in front of him, sitting with her legs crossed in front of her. 

“Yoohoo!” she called, waving her hands in front of his head. “Look, guy, person…if you are going to live in my head you can at least tell me your name right?”

Abi reached over to touch his shoulder, but her hand just slipped right through it. The air was chillier than in the rest of the room. 

“Right…hallucination. Not real,” she muttered to herself. Abi leaned back onto her hands and stretched her back lithely. She wasn’t exactly in the best of moods. She hadn’t even gotten off once before her and Jack were interrupted so she was already feeling rather frustrated. When the man gave no indication of moving or speaking she decided the best course of action was simple. She would just ignore him. If he was just a figment of her imagination then maybe he’d go away if she refused to acknowledged his existence. Happy to have settled the matter, Abi got up and yanked her clothes off again. She tossed them onto her reading chair to change back into after, and headed into the bathroom for a shower and a good resolution to the night. 

 

Sai was beyond embarrassed. He was absolutely mortified. What he thought had been the cries of torment had turned out to be the cries of ecstasy. He’d managed to find himself in such an inappropriate situation and he had no idea what to do about it. He could hear the couple arguing but he had no idea what they were saying. The language was decidedly not Japanese and whoever the couple was had obviously not been Asian of any sort. He’d certainly seen enough of them to be sure of that. The yelling seemed to calm down a bit and the two spoke back and forth briefly and then one of them left, rudely walking right through him as though he wasn’t there at all. He’d calmed down a little bit and thought to take another look at where he was when a loud clattering sound in front of him scared him once again. He jerked his head up to see what it was and found himself looking up at the woman who was still completely naked. He felt his face flush with burning red all over again.

Sai buried his face once more and turned around. He shut his eyes tight but the image of the naked woman seemed to have been burned into his mind. He was once again mortified and desperately tried to think of other things in the hopes it would go away. He began mentally going through various difficult tsumego, focusing only on the black and white of the stones. He heard the woman speaking again though he still didn’t know what she was saying and then after a few moments he heard the person sit down in front of him. He struggled harder to focus on the go stones in his mind but she was speaking again and then he felt her hand go right through his shoulder and everything seemed to go completely blank. He was terrified that if he looked up, she’d be sitting there naked. He decided the best thing to do would be to sit there still as a rock and do nothing. 

A short while later he heard Abi stand up and walk away. A few moments after that he heard a rustling of clothing and then the shutting of a door. The soft hiss of water from a shower soon followed. Only when he was positive he was alone in the room did he allow himself to raise his head and look around. He was indeed in a bedroom. It was rather large and quite empty looking. The walls were crudely plastered and the floors were old and wooden. To his left was an old wire framed bed, the bedding was crumpled and one of the pillows was laying on the floor at the foot of it, next to an old leather trunk. Sai darted his eyes away from the scene and looked elsewhere. Directly in front of him was a doorway that lead out to another room and to his right was another wall. Stacks of canvases were leaning up against it. He turned to look further to the right and a saw a large easel was set up in front of two tall windows that stretched up to a high ceiling. There was a canvas leaning up on it with a dirty cloth draped over the front. Wooden crates filled with paints and other supplies were scattered around the base and a small table sat next to it, covered in dirty glass jars. He looked towards the front again and noticed beyond the foot of the bed was another doorway. He surmised this one led to the bathroom. Just beyond that door up against the wall was an old tall dresser and an oversized stuffed chair. There was a small table next to it and a tall lamp behind. 

Sai didn’t know if he dared move but he was curious about what lay beyond the first doorway. From where he was sitting he couldn’t see much. The end of a couch was peeking into view but that was about it. Just when he decided he would go investigate the bathroom door swung open and a towel-clad Abi walked through. She paid no mind to Sai, who had turned around, again, to avoid seeing anything untowards…again. 

“Gommennasai, gommennasai!” he squeaked out.

Abi paused midway through putting her tank top back on. Comprehension dawned on her when she realized what the man had said. No wonder he hadn’t responded to her earlier. He didn’t speak English!

She finished getting dressed and then sat back down on the floor in front of the man.

“Watashi wa Abi desu,” she said softy, hoping not to startle the skittish man again.

Sai looked at her, surprise and excitement breaking onto his face.

“Nihongo o hanashimasu ka?” exclaimed Sai.

“Sukoshi” replied Abi, pinching her fingers together to indicate it was really only a little. “Yoroshiku,” she added. 

“Watashi no namae wa Sai desu. Fujiwara no Sai.”

“Hajimemashite, Sai-san.” 

 

“Ummm…Abi-san. Sorry about earlier,” said Sai in Japanese, bowing his head down.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, waving it off with a hand. “You’re my hallucination anyway, right? It’s my own fault.”

“Hallucination?” asked Sai, looking up. 

“Well…yeah, I mean Jack couldn’t see you at all so I must be imagining you, right?”

“Hmm that probably isn’t entirely accurate. I don’t think I’m an hallucination, Abi-san. I’m a ghost.”

“A ghost? If you are a ghost how in the world did you get way over here in America. Surely you should be haunting some temple in Japan or something? Maybe a school classroom or old well?” she asked.

“Why would I haunt a classroom?” Sai asked back in confusion.

“No reason..just it seems strange that you’d be here in the middle of nowhere.”

“I don’t know why I’m here either. I was in Japan and then I was back in my goban…and then everything went black and then…well…” he trailed off. 

“Goban?” asked Abi.

“Hai!” exclaimed Sai and he launched into his tale, telling Abi all about his own life in the capital, how he taught go, and how he died. He continued on, explaining to her how he had haunted Shuusaku and then Hikaru. He told her all about the young boy and the crazy experiences they had. 

“I miss him,” he moped. “I want to see him.”

It was a long story but Abi sat through the whole thing listening carefully. She still wasn’t convinced that Sai was an actual ghost and not just some part of her brain screwing with her. It was all rather far-fetched and she had been studying go a lot lately. It wouldn’t be so out there for her to have finally cracked or something. 

“I suppose if you lived over 1000 years ago there probably is no way to verify you actually existed…” Abi thought out loud. 

“You don’t believe me.” Stated Sai, crestfallen.

“Well you gotta admit its a lot of story to accept. It is probably far more likely that all these names are ones I’ve seen online when studying go and my brain is just using them to fabricate some crazy stuff. Shuusaku is pretty famous you know, even among us American amateurs. Don’t know about Shindou Hikaru though. Maybe I should google it,” she trailed off to herself.

“Study go?!” exclaimed Sai. “You play go?”

“Hmm? Yeah, a little.” She confirmed. To be honest it wasn’t just a little. She played every day and she studied the game about as much as she worked on her thesis. She had even taught herself some Japanese so she could read more books that were not published in English. 

“Let’s play!” said Sai excitedly. 

An idea formed in Abi’s mind. If Sai was just an hallucination then he’d only be able to play at Abi’s own level. If he was a ghost like he claimed…and Shuusaku’s ghost at that, then he’d have no problem demolishing her on the board.

“Okay,” she agreed. “The goban is in here.”

Abi stood up and walked out into the living room with Sai following her. To the left was a small kitchen along with a little table and four chairs. To the right was an open living space. The couch extended to the right and in front of it was a coffee table on which sat a goban. Half a game was on it from earlier in the day. She’d been replaying the final Gosei title match between Ogata Jyudan and Fujisawa 9dan. Ogata had failed to take back the title he’d lost the previous year. Sai headed straight to the goban and hunched over it taking in the game while Abi walked over to the kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. Once the Keurig sputtered off she picked up her mug and headed over to the couch. The coffee table was pulled up close so she could still reach the goban while sitting cross legged. 

“Uhh…should I get you a chair or something?” she asked. 

“That’s okay,” he replied, swishing his hand in and out of the goban. “I can’t touch it anyway.”

The sad look on his face didn’t go unnoticed by Abi and she wondered what it would feel like to not even be able to pick up your own stones. That was the main reason she’d bought a goban even though she had no one to play with. She ached for the tactile sensation of placing stones and listening to the steady clack as they hit the board.

“Is this your game?” asked Sai, clearly impressed with it.

“No,” laughed Abi. “I don’t know anyone else here that plays. All my games are played online. I just use the goban for replaying professional matches and working on problems. Besides, I could only dream of playing that well. It’s a match from last week. The final Gosei match. Ogata Jyudan vs Fujisawa 9dan. Ogata is black.”

“It’s a tight match,” said Sai. “They are playing quite evenly, even if black is a bit too aggressive on the top.” 

“It cost him the game,” confirmed Abi. “Ogata usually plays a really tight game. Very precise and cold, ya know? He was probably a bit too eager to win the title back after losing it last year.”

“He lost it?” blurted Sai with surprise.

“Ahh. He still has the Jyudan though. He was successful in defending it again this year. It was Kurata’s second time challenging for it”

“You are well-informed,” commented Sai while Abi worked to clear the board. She shrugged.

“I like to keep up on what’s going on. There really isn’t much that goes on here in the states. There are a couple of amateur tournaments now and then but that’s about it. The Go world revolves around the east.”

“So umm…how do you want to do this?” asked Abi, indicating the board and stones. 

“I’ll just…” Sai said, cutting himself off. He reached deep into his sleeves but it wasn’t there. He searched again but his beloved fan was still nowhere to be found. He then remembered that he had given it to Hikaru, in a dream. The memory was warm and gentle and a pang of loss coursed through him as he remembered the sadness on Hikaru’s face as they said goodbye. 

“I’ll just point,” he said, pushing his sleeve back and out of the way. “You’ll have to place my stones for me.” 

“Do you have a preference?”

“Black is fine.”

The match started with Sai pointing to 17-4 komoku, his favorite opening move, and progressed with the unspoken agreement of no handicap. The best way to determine your opponents strength is to play them in an even match. 

 

Sai stared down at the goban with open wonderment. The woman opposite him was not the strongest opponent he’d ever faced, nor the most ruthless or cunning but he couldn’t help but be amazed as the go stones took shape on the board. It was stunning. In the tens of thousands of games he’d played over multiple lifetimes he’d never seen such beautiful go before. It was not uncommon for people to talk about a go match as more than just a game but rather as a conversation between players. What lay beyond all the talk was the art of shape, but this went beyond even that. This was far more subtle than anything Sai had seen before. Her go flowed over the board in a graceful entanglement that took on the nuances of an erotic dance. She wasn’t speaking through her go, she was making love. Sai fought down the flush that threatened to color his cheeks as unbidden memories tried to rise to the surface and took the opportunity to study his opponent. 

He had never seen many foreigners before. They were completely unheard of in his own time save for the few Chinese envoys in the court. He’d encountered a rare few when he traveled with Torajirou but they had all been men. Even when he was with Hikaru the number of foreign women he’d seen had been very minimal so he wasn’t sure what kind of standard of beauty to compare her to, but Sai suspected she was not lacking in that department. Her face was slim and her features petite save a pair of large wild nearly grey eyes that matched the wild mass of hair on her head. It was the color of rich honey laced with gold and cascaded past her shoulders in feral curls. It gave her overall appearance a fierce quality that matched her lively eyes and offset her small stature. Her posture was tidy but naturally fluid and as he watched her reach into the goke to place stones for the both of them a long forgotten memory of teaching in the capital was triggered. 

Sai hadn’t realized how much he missed those small things from his own lifetime that seemed rare in modern times and it surprised him to discover just how comfortable he felt here. He was in a strange country where he couldn’t speak the language, haunting a foreign woman he knew nothing about but here in front of the goban he felt more at home than he ever had with Torajirou or Hikaru. Not that he didn’t love being with either of his previous students and he still missed them fiercely, especially Hikaru who he had so recently been taken from, but if he was to haunt another person Sai was thankful Kami-sama had chosen this woman for him. 

More important than the little things, it would be evident to anyone who saw her play that she loved Go; truly loved the game. Even when she was deep in contemplation the hint of a smile graced her lips and her eyes stayed bright and fresh. Even playing against an opponent as strong as Sai she didn’t cower away or struggle. She was having too much fun. She was strong herself for an amateur but not up to par with the pros in Japan, Korea, and China. Well, not yet anyway. The longer they played the more evident it became why the God of Go had brought Sai to this woman. The world of Go was not established as well here in America as it was in the east. She’d done amazingly well getting to her current level by teaching herself, replaying games and playing online, but what she truly needed to break through into the world of the strong was a strong opponent.

“Now I understand why Kami-sama brought me to you,” he told Abi, and she paused with her hand midway into the white goke and looked up at the ghost. 

“You’ve hit a wall, haven’t you?” he asked her, and the smile slid from her lips turning into a slight frown. She dropped the stone back into the goke and pulled her hand out, setting them both in her lap. 

“Well its true I haven’t really progressed any lately. Probably over the last 6 months or so, but my game hasn’t felt stagnant at all.” she commented. 

“What you’ve been lacking to truly advance your game is strong opponents. You only play online and while there are lots of strong players there some things you can only learn by playing face to face.” explained Sai. Abi knew he was right of course but there wasn’t an abundance of strong go players in this small midwest town. She doubted there was more than a handful or two that even knew what Go was. 

Abi let herself fall back into the couch and she crossed her arms behind her head, looking up at the ceiling.  
“I don’t think what you are saying is wrong per se, but I do think you are mistaken about one thing.” she countered. “I don’t think this God of Go brought you to me, I think he brought me to you.”

“Does that mean you believe my story?”

“You are slaughtering me on the board,” pointed out Abi. “If you were a figment of my imagination your game would be very similar to my own, and it’s highly unlikely you would be that much, if at all, stronger than me. There is no way I could play the way you do so…yes I do believe that you are a ghost.”

“What did you mean before, that Kami-sama brought you to me?” asked Sai. 

“What you’ve been missing..all these thousand years, is exactly what I have to offer you,” she explained. “What you wanted more than anything all those years ago was to play more go...which you got through Shuusaku but not even the God of Go can control everything. Humans have free will after all, and Shuusaku died early. The next time you came back was with Hikaru, right? But the world has changed a lot in 1000 years and the world of go with it. You were able to mentor Hikaru, guide him on his path, and show him that amazing game, right?”

Sai nodded, wondering where she was going with all of this.

“But in the end your own go was still left on the sides. You were stuck in a situation where there couldn’t be both a Sai and a Hikaru. To play in the world of professionals with a strength not his own would not only be dishonest, but detrimental to his own growth. But Sai, I’m not Torajirou and I’m not Hikaru. I’m just a nobody American girl. There are things in the Go world that I can never accomplish no matter how strong I become and frankly it has never been my goal to do so.” 

Sai was beginning to understand where she was going with this and he noticed the hint of sadness that had crept into her voice. She was right though. As a foreigner and as a woman her opportunities were severely limited and the road to the top would be far more challenging for her. There was no Pro League here...there was only the smallest of an amateur following compared to the eastern countries. 

“I guess what I’m saying is, with me you can play, Sai. I’ll make a deal with you. If you promise to tutor me in go, then I’ll be your body in the world of go. I’ll be your hands and place your stones for you. What do you think?”

A spark of thrill coursed through Sai’s body as he imagined sitting face to face with Touya Meijin, playing an even match instead of the highly handicapped one he’d played with Hikaru, but he frowned.

“Just because you don’t want to be a professional or play in official matches doesn’t mean your own Go isn’t important.” he said.  
“I agree,” she countered. “I still want to get stronger myself which is why I want you to teach me. I don’t think that desire will ever go away, but I’m not the amazingly gifted super strong player here. It’s okay if it is my existence that stays locked up in a computer screen while yours flourishes on the goban,” she said with a grin. 

There was a niggling sensation that this wasn’t right either. That Abi deserved more than having her beautiful go confined to a computer but the prospect of the future matches he’d have was too much to contain and he broke out into a huge smile and the innocent childish nature in him won over as he laughed and jumped in excitement. 

She watched in happiness as the man who at least in appearance was similar in age to her, broke down into the antics of a five year old and celebrated the start of a new life. 

Abi leaned back forward and propped her elbows on her knees with her chin on both palms. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she said Sai was slaughtering her on the board. He’d halted all her attacks and sliced through every weak link in her defense with an efficient ruthlessness she never would have guessed he had in him considering his effeminate appearance and childlike personality. Abi had nary a live stone left on the board. She never had been very good at reading deeply or counting. Those skills felt awkward and too precise for her. Her go was very much one of intuition rather than cold strategy. If she had more patience for that sort of game she’d have probably resigned several hands ago. She let out an exasperated sigh

“I resign.”

Sai’s serious expression cracked into a smile. 

“Your go is beautiful,” he complimented her. “If a bit weak.”

“Well I can’t argue with the weak part,” she said, shaking her head. “Shuusaku, huh.”

“How strong are you considered online?” asked Sai. 

“Hmm…it depends on which server but I suppose on average I’d be considered a 5 or 6 dan amateur. There is no solid agreement but a good rule of thumb considers a 7 or 8 dan amateur to be around the same strength as a shodan professional.” 

“That seems fair. In this game you played about the same Hikaru did when he was an insei. You can do better though, you just need to learn to balance your intuition with skill and calculation.”

Abi scrunched her face up. 

“I don’t like counting,” she pouted. 

“Well counting is certainly a part of it but you need to read further into the game. You like playing in the moment. So far your go sense has been able to keep you out of trouble with other amateur players but stronger players will be able to lay down much more intricate traps for you, taking advantage of your play style,” explained Sai. He pointed to the upper left of the board. 

“Like here, you should have extended instead of placing a hane. The jump seems like the better move at first because it strengthens your shape along the top but several hands later I would have been forced to protect instead of cutting off these stones. 

Their discussion of the game continued on into early morning and towards the end Abi found herself struggling to stay awake. Finally Sai tucked his hands into his sleeves and looked up from the board to her. 

“You should sleep. Even if you stay up you wont remember any of this.”

“Mmm…” agreed Abi. Sai was a complete wealth of information. She probably should have gone to bed hours ago but she was eager to learn from him even if it meant charting off into territory she’d rather leave untouched. He’d scolded her several times on her lazy efforts to keep precise track of territory and though she disliked it Abi admitted, to herself at least, that he was right. If she wanted to get stronger she’d have to learn to play a more balanced game. If she took the time to work at her weaknesses she’d gradually be able to fit them into her style. 

She thought about getting off the couch to turn the lights off and go to bed, but it seemed like too much effort. Intsead she let her body fall sideways on the couch and snuggled into the cushions. It would be daylight soon enough anyway. 

“Abi, aren’t you going to bed?” asked Sai.

“Mmm,” she groaned in response, not bothering to open her eyes and look at the ghost.

“You’ll catch a cold if you sleep out here,” he scolded. 

“That’s just an old wives tale,” muttered Abi as she rolled over and pressed her face into the back of the couch. 

Sai sat and watched as Abi’s shoulders rose and fell steadily, wishing he could grab a blanket to drape over them. 

“Hey Sai?” mumbled Abi through the couch fabric

“Yes, Abi?”

“Do you sleep?” she asked, curling up on herself tighter. 

“Mmmnn,” he replied. “I don’t really get tired. 

Sai continued to watch her, occasionally glancing down at the goban where their game was still spread out. Just when he thought she’d fallen asleep, she flung herself off the couch and stood up. Her body may have been alert but the expression on her face was still groggy. 

“Abi?” asked Sai. He wondered if she was sleepwalking but even though she could have passed out at any moment she was awake enough for what she had in mind. The idea of Sai stuck sitting around with nothing to do while she dreamnt away the hours was bothering her. She walked into the kitchen and pulled her laptop off of the table, making sure to unplug the cord and carrying it with her back into the living room. There she plugged it back in and flipped the lid open. After a series of clicks and a steady stream of typing what appeared to be gibberish to Sai, she leaned back so he could see her handiwork. 

Abi had set up a couple of mouse macros that would open up the top ranked game for observation and then close it after a set amount of time, opening up the next top ranked game. Sai would be able to watch players online while she slept. She explained to him how it worked.

“I can’t guarantee you’ll get to watch anything all that exciting but it beats watching me snore,” she said. 

Sai was genuinely touched at her concern. With Torajirou and Hikaru he’d spent the nights much like the time he spent in the autumn fields of his goban, playing through previous matches in his head. Even if the games were not a high level of play he would still be able to absorb new information. 

“I’m going to bed then,” she concluded with a yawn. 

“Goodnight, Abi.”

“Goodnight, Sai.”

Abi picked up the pillow off the floor and climbed into her messy bed, hugging it tightly to her chest while she drifted off to sleep.


End file.
